White House Is Confident Bernanke Will Be Confirmed

As the president endorsed a bill to create a bipartisan budget commission, officials said they were confident the Federal Reserve chairman would get a second term.

JACKIE CALMES

WASHINGTON — After a full-scale mobilization, White House officials expressed confidence on Saturday that they had contained a populist uprising among Democratic senators that had threatened President Obama’s nomination of Ben S. Bernanke to a second term as the Federal Reserve chairman.

Hoping to quell fears in the financial markets that Mr. Bernanke could become a casualty of rising anti-Wall Street sentiment, Senator Christopher J. Dodd, the Democrat from Connecticut who is chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, and Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, a Republican who is a member of the panel, said in a statement that “based on our discussions with our colleagues, we are very confident that Chairman Bernanke will win confirmation.”

Also on Saturday, Mr. Obama endorsed a bill scheduled for a Senate vote on Tuesday that would create a bipartisan budget commission and require that its recommendations for slashing deficits would get a vote in Congress this year. But he remained ready to establish a panel by executive order if the vote falls short, despite his support.

The effort to secure Mr. Bernanke’s confirmation, which had intensified after two Democratic senators announced their opposition on Friday, continued through Saturday and included calls to senators by both Mr. Obama and Mr. Bernanke. By late afternoon, senators began issuing statements of support.

White House and Congressional Democratic leaders say they now believe that they have the 60 votes needed to block a filibuster of Mr. Bernanke’s reappointment. They expect some Democrats will oppose him on the confirmation vote, but that requires only 50 votes.

The first break in what had seemed a potential stampede against Mr. Bernanke was the statement from Mr. Dodd and Mr. Gregg. About four hours later, two Democrats — Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts and Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois — issued separate endorsements.

Mr. Kerry, acknowledging many Americans’ anger about the bailouts of the big banks, said, “It’s understandable why there is debate, questioning and even anger” about Mr. Bernanke’s renomination.

“Still,” he added, “out of this near calamity, I believe Chairman Bernanke provided leadership that was urgent, nimble, strong and vital in staving off greater disaster.”

Mr. Obama’s endorsement of the deficit commission bill sponsored by the leading Democrat and Republican on the Senate Budget Committee is intended to help ease passage on Tuesday of a separate and always unpopular measure to raise the nation’s debt limit so the government can continue borrowing to cover its operations. In exchange for their votes to raise the debt limit, moderate Democrats have demanded a vote on the commission bill, as a sign that the White House and Congress are serious about reducing annual deficits.

But by signaling bipartisanship and fiscal conservatism at a time when the public is demanding both, Mr. Obama is also likely to put Congressional Republicans on the defensive for opposing any budget commission.

Most Republicans object that a commission would inevitably lead to tax increases. But economists generally agree that projected deficits cannot be brought under control without both tax increases and lower spending for Medicare and Medicaid.

Mr. Gregg, the senior Republican on the budget committee who sponsored the commission bill with Senator Kent Conrad, the panel’s Democratic chairman, said in an interview that both taxes and spending must be on the table.

Mr. Obama had held back from endorsing a law for a commission partly because opponents included the speaker of the House, Representative Nancy Pelosi of California. His fallback proposal was a presidential commission, which would not require Congress to vote on its recommendations as a law would. For that reason, Mr. Gregg opposed it.

Congressional Democratic aides said they still expected the commission bill to fail. If it does, the White House hopes that Mr. Gregg and other Republicans will reconsider their opposition to a presidential commission.

“I’m not closing the door to that,” Mr. Gregg said.

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